Akemi Ritsiku
Akemi Ritsiku is a human Rakshasa hybrid. Overview Akemi is a slightly built girl and has only a few friends among her classmates. Akemi is the surface impression that everyone saw, just an average-if-kawaii young Japanese schoolgirl of no particular distinction or importance. She is the girlfriend of a gang member that are rivals to Derrick’s. She ended up coming across him in a club and when she turned down his advances he tried to kill her in retaliation. Though she tried to get away she was quickly surrounded by Derrick and the other members of his gang. As she was being threatened Akemi was rescued by a Rakshasa who had escaped Eve’s wrath and was looking for suitable prey to sate its all-consuming hunger. This Rakshasa was different from other Rakshasa in that it had feelings and emotions quite unlike those of its cretch-mates and had learned to question and think upon its own. Its aching hunger caused the Rakshasa it to act imprudently, flooding its victim with powerful stomach acids that did their grim work in the space of a full minute. Derrick being high on Ecstasy accused Akemi of summoning a demon and killed her before the Rakshasa could stop him. Now that its hunger had been fueled allowing eason and intelligence to return the Rakshasa attempted to heal Akemi by drawing her into itself. However still affected by the Ecstasy that had been in Derrick's system it ended up fusing with her body. At first, shortly following their merger, Akemi’s cat Akuma would hiss and avoid them as its animal senses were so acute that it recognized the presence within its mistress and the potential for danger. It was only after much coaching on Akemi's part that they finally overcame their differences. The two of them grew so close of that it was difficult to determine where one ended and defined herself as distinctly different from the other. This fact was recognized in the simple ability to hold and stroke the fur of the cat named Akuma. It amazed the Rakshasa within her, the human capacity to empathize with another living being and to share affection with a different life-form that was infinitely more primitive than herself. In learning to understand this of Akemi it had gained a fresh perspective over why human beings had successfully resisted the intrusion of the Rakshasa. It was beyond simple caring, it was their willingness and capacity for self-sacrifice for the sake of a loved one that goaded them to aspire to more than they might become if only motivated by self-interest or self-preservation, passions that were only too well understood by a Rakshasa. As for Akemi she did not brood about or lament her life the way she used to, not since accessing the Rakshasa's memories and discovering how much worse things had been for her new friend. It was part of why she found it so easy to accept being a part of another being with no resentment over having to share the same body. It was now fully a part of her, and it had saved her life from certain death, and its presence brightened up a life that once had appeared useless and empty, for which she was infinitely grateful. Of course, as happy as their union could be at most times, still there was a darker side to matters, and a price that needed to be paid to sustain the Rakshasa. Though it had come to feel a great sympathy for humanity as a whole, still it was a predator by nature, and unable to totally deny the demands of its nature. It needed to periodically hunt and feed in order to remain healthy, and Akemi had to provide it with a continuous supply of the only sustenance that was required by the Rakshasa. And for that reason they often would take long extended walks together, no longer avoiding the haunts and dark allies that once terrified the formerly timid Akemi, for that was where their prey was the easiest to locate. All one had to do was be in the right area at the right time and the prey would all but magically appear before you, and then the Rakshasa would feed, and all would be right once again in the world, with only the muggers and bullies having a different sort of opinion. Arriving home from grocery shopping with her mother she wiped dried blood from her mouth luckily her mom mistook it for chocolate. It was such a cheerful inability to sense the presence of a demon possessing her daughter that made life bearable around the house, though everyone else knew that there was something oddly different about her these days. Making her way to her room she almost tripped over her brother’s skateboard leading to an argument between the two. Afterwards the Rakshasa questioned why the two fought so often when they obviously cared about each other. She explained that that's just the way humans are around one another. The Rakshasa seemed satisfied with this, but still it could not help but prompt another question, about how they were going to continue to keep out of sight of Lenore and Kasumi. As they were figuring that out they sensed the presence of a Hate elemental. The Rakshasa did not recognize the creature so much for what it was as for what it apparently was, and even as they studied the thing it seemed to register them back, for it turned beady eyes their way and locked gazes with Akemi, attempting to read her even as she found herself being fortified by the Rakshasa. A moment passed during which nothing more happened, but then the creature hissed and extended its tiny wings, then flapped them at great speed and flew away like a darting ball of blue-black. Abilities Since merging with the Rakshasa Akemi can psionically alter the formation of her biological cells at will. As a result, she can assume nearly any shape that could be imagined. She is able to adapt her body depending on her situation at the time. She was able to camouflage her body according to her surroundings, shift her organs into her lower extremities, and enhance her strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and senses. Category:Continuum-59343921 Category:Characters